


Year's End

by sainnis



Series: Fellowes Mews [9]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sexy Times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-14
Updated: 2013-03-14
Packaged: 2017-12-05 06:16:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sainnis/pseuds/sainnis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is set as Roy celebrates the anniversary of his first year as Prime Minister.  Sexytimes ensue.  Also a wee bit of drama.</p><p>This is the ninth story in the Fellowes Mews series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Year's End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nyagosstar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyagosstar/gifts).



> Written for and beta-ed by nyagosstar, who hates migraines too.

Roy stood in a pool of light. From behind the podium, draped green and gold in the colors of Amestris, he was nearing the finale of his Year’s End speech, and from the countless swells of applause that rose from the crowd, it was clear he was not without supporters at the conclusion of his first year in office.

He looked like he’d stepped off a film screen and onto the stage. The tailor had been right about the charcoal grey; the suit fit him perfectly, making him look slightly taller and broader than Ed knew him to be. The faintest flush had risen on Roy’s cheeks as he professed his belief in Amestris, in its people, in its promise. Ed had heard this speech in its various incarnations countless times, and yet as he watched Roy’s face, seeing the cautious optimism coming to life in his features, he felt his eyes burn. 

He was a poor excuse for a patriot, he knew. He’d only joined the army to save his brother, nothing more. Saving Amestris had been an unplanned consequence of his actions, a side effect. Being Roy’s bodyguard was a purely selfish act on his part; had the Prime Minister been anyone else, the position would have belonged to anyone else but him. Yet he listened to Roy’s words, words he’d heard so many times before, and like the massive crowd before him, he fell under the spell just the same, and he knew that he loved Amestris, if only because Roy loved it so.

Ed blinked, clearing his vision. He’d let his mind wander, and perhaps it had been only a minute or two, but that kind of lapse wasn’t acceptable while Roy was on stage. The protection staff the Year’s End speech required was enormous, and even though he’d drilled them for weeks on end, putting together scenarios that would have made a bestselling novelist weep, Ed still held his breath. After all the preparations, the sleepless nights, the fights he’d had with everyone from the janitorial staff on up, all that remained was fear that everything would fall apart, and a little hope that maybe once in their lives it wouldn’t.

“And so I stand before you, one year older, one year wiser, and one year surer that this nation will rise from the ghosts of its past. This very moment we are shaping its future, forging its path. You have given me your trust, and I will continue to make good on my promise to you, which is this: the glory of Amestris is its people, and I will protect and preserve that as long as you allow me to.”

Roy raised his hand, flashed his smile. “God bless Amestris, and God bless you all.”

The applause wasn’t thunderous, because thunder fades for minutes at a time. This applause was more like a summer storm, starting suddenly and rushing over the space, filling the Arena with sound. There were shouts, and whistles, and women and men pressing handkerchiefs to their eyes, and hands reaching up and out towards the man who’d just given perhaps the most successful Year’s End speech in the history of Amestris. 

Roy gave his farewells, and then walked across the stage, coming to stand beside Ed in the wings.

“What did you think?” Roy’s grin was infectious.

“I think there are a lot of people who’d like to be sleeping with you tonight.”

Roy shrugged, touching his temples, which were lightly damp with sweat from the house lights. “You know I can only handle one lover at a time.”

Ed looked up at him, and he fought back every urge to shove his hands inside Roy’s beautifully tailored suit. He checked his pocket watch, and then gave a curt, professional nod. “Protocol seven. Let’s go.”

The Prime Minister smiled, bemused. “Yes, sir.”

Roy was always mildly impossible when something went incredibly well for them. Hughes met them with a bottle of champagne, crowing. Havoc joined Ed in protection detail tonight, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lip. The speech writers clamored around him and were effusive in their praise, each trying to claim ownership of that one line that had put the audience on its feet, but ultimately giving the kudos to Roy, which he generously turned around on them. Guards kept the press at bay, though Ed let through two reporters that he trusted, only because Roy had threatened to throw himself off the Manor roof if Ed didn’t. 

After the four minute interviews, which Ed timed within a second, they slipped outside where the cars were already waiting for them. A virtual line of soldiers had formed a perimeter around the back lot of Central’s Parliament, and Ed ushered everyone along, giving Roy’s spine a very stern push into the Roadster. The Prime Minister waved to his adoring fans and press as the flashbulbs went off.

“I said drive!” Ed shouted, and the driver eased the Roadster out into the street, away from Parliament, away from the crowds, away from the deafening noise and away from the guns and knives and bombs that Ed had somehow managed to keep from Roy tonight.

Roy sighed, tugging on his tie until it fell loosely against his chest. “That was amazing.”

Ed nodded, exhaling as he fell back against the leather seat. He licked his dry lips, wishing for a moment he had taken up Hughes on the champagne. As the adrenaline slowly ebbed, he felt his stomach growl, and he realized he hadn’t eaten anything since the night before. 

Roy’s hand reached out, stroking his chest. “You must be exhausted.”

“Me? Never.” Ed undid the first two buttons of his jacket, giving Roy better access. “Stress is like air for me. Necessary for life.”

“I know a radio address would have been so much easier. Safer. I know how hard you worked to make this happen tonight. And I’m sorry I was such an ass yesterday. I—“

“Don’t worry about it.” Ed let out a shuddered breath as Roy’s fingers circled his left nipple. “It’s all right. Let’s just not do this again for another year, okay?”

“Fair enough.”

Roy teased him all the way back to the Manor, and it was all Ed could do not to tell the driver to pull over and hand him fifty cens to leave them alone for half an hour. By the time they arrived back home, Ed was practically panting, but there were guards to check on, logs to examine, and several rooms to inspect. Ed never chose the room they’d be sleeping in until late in the day, and it was always different from the one that he indicated on the rotation. Tonight it was the Library Suite, which was one of his favorites, because few things got him hotter than Roy and shelves full of rare, leather-bound books. 

When they were finally alone in the Suite, the door was finally locked, and he was finally sure that no one was going to kill Roy tonight, Ed walked right past Roy and poured himself a glass of water, which he downed and immediately refilled.

“Thirsty?”

“You have no idea.” Ed wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “People hand you food and drink all day long, which you don’t have checked nearly often enough, which I tell you all the time. But I haven’t had a thing since that crappy coffee from the vendor this morning.”

“You want me to call down for food?” 

“Nah. I’ll wait till the morning. If I get something now you’ll be too tired to fuck by the time I’m done eating.”

Roy gave him a withering look. “I’m never too tired to fuck.”

“Oh, really? You want me to start listing the times and places we’ve been where you just nodded off?”

“I have never just nodded off.” Roy crossed his arms over his chest, trying his best to look menacing, but the effect was cancelled by his striped boxer shorts and dress socks drooping down his calves. 

“Don’t lie. You have. There was that one time when we’d just gotten back from Xing and I was buried up to my balls in your ass and I swear you were snoring.”

“That was one time! And I was really, really tired, and for the record, so were you, because if memory serves, I woke up and you’d fallen asleep before you even pulled out, thank you very much.”

Ed laughed, and Roy came over to stand beside him, grabbing him by the wrist and tugging him towards the bed. Ed fell against the mattress, and Roy pressed on top of him, clumsily removing his jacket and shirt as he kissed Ed’s throat. 

“You smell really good.”

“I haven’t showered for two days. I smell rank.”

“I like it.” Roy pulled off his phenomenally expensive dress shirt, laughing when a bit of oil from Ed’s automail stained one sleeve. “Whoops.”

“Good thing your beloved Amestris pays for the cleaning bills.”

Roy pulled off more of Ed’s clothing. “Very magnanimous of them.” 

Roy’s mouth was ubiquitous, on his shoulder, on his collarbone, on his temple, chin, forehead. Every warm touch, every slide of fingertips against his skin seemed to pull away another layer of worry. Ed was already naked, but he felt like there was more to remove, and Roy was doing that slowly, patiently. 

His automail hand was twisted in Roy’s hair while his flesh hand was already stroking Roy’s stomach, the skin already hot against his palm. There wasn’t time for Roy’s grandstanding now, as he was too busy breathing and kissing and sucking for there to be any room for syllables and parts of speech. Ed was already hard against Roy, and he grabbed Roy by the shoulders, pushing until he’d effectively flipped him over. 

Roy gasped, grinning a little as Ed took control. “How come I always seem to end up on my back?”

Ed looked down, meeting Roy’s gaze. “Because I never get tired of watching you.” 

Sometimes it was all very clever with them. Roy loved trying new places and positions, and had more than once thrown his back out attempting a stance that would have better suited a circus performer. He was a spontaneous and persuasive lover, though it didn’t take much coercion on Roy’s part to get Ed to play along with his schemes. Ed enjoyed holding his fantasies in reserve, like heirloom rings in a safety deposit box. Every once in awhile he took one out, and Roy was always dazzled.

Tonight, though, wasn’t about being clever. It wasn’t hard and fast and rough, or slick and up against the bathroom wall balanced on one leg. It was relief, mixed up with gratitude and exhaustion and a little bit of apology.

He loved feeling Roy beneath him, the way his muscles moved beneath the skin, the way his chest heaved as he panted for breath. They knew this part so well; they’d been together so many times that they could read each other’s bodies as well as the books on the wall. He knew when Roy was ready, and exactly how far to push, and exactly where to thrust, and anticipated the sounds Roy would make a moment before he made them. 

Roy was no slouch as a scholar of Ed’s anatomy, and he sucked hard over the scars at Ed’s collarbone, making him moan. He touched all of Ed as if he were entirely made of flesh, and there were moments when Roy’s thighs were pulling him in tighter that he wasn’t sure his body had been fully restored. 

“You were…fucking amazing tonight,” Ed panted, groaning a bit as Roy bucked against him.

“What do you mean…were?” Roy said, raising his head to nip at Ed’s neck.

They were both far enough along that verbal quips would require more air than they could spare. Ed felt the hot splash of Roy’s come against his stomach and chest, which pushed him over the edge. Deliciously spent, Ed relaxed against Roy, unsure of whether the racing heartbeat he felt was his own or Roy’s.

They lay together, listening to each other’s breathing slow, mixed up in each other’s scent. Ed always wanted to shower after sex, but Roy was far too lazy. There were nights Ed would have made the concession, but he could hardly stand his own stink as it was. He finally rose from the bed, stretching his tight shoulders.

“You going to shower?”

Roy made an indifferent sound.

“At least pull the duvet off. Make sure the sheets are clean.”

Roy waved him off.

“If I come back and you’re asleep in your own filth—“

Roy grunted. “I heard you.”

The warm water of the shower cascaded over him, soothing his sore muscles. He smiled a little as a grease spot appeared on the marble tub floor, thinking of the stain on Roy’s shirt. Hughes must have hired the most confidential cleaning staff in the history of Amestris, Ed thought. 

He turned up the hot water, making it close to scalding, and then turned around, letting it hit his spine. No matter where they moved in the future, Ed had decided, they were taking this showerhead with them. There was one installed in every shower in the Manor, and a better piece of machinery, other than his automail, he had yet to find. 

He opened his eyes, preparing to shut the water off, when he notice the strange spot in his vision. Regardless of where he looked, it didn’t seem to go away, and stranger still, it seemed like it was growing slowly, incrementally larger. He turned the faucet off, climbed carefully out of the tub and threw a towel around his waist before he walked back into the bedroom.

“Roy?”

Roy’s head shot up. “I’m awake. Duvet. I’ll get it.”

Ed came alongside the bed, perching lightly on the edge. “Something weird is going on.”

Roy rubbed his eyes, sitting up. “You all right?”

Ed blinked again, hoping the aura in his vision would disappear, but it hadn’t. “I think there’s something wrong with my eyes.” 

“Your eyes?” Roy frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. There’s this spot, it’s like a blind spot, and it’s getting bigger. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like there’s this weird halo and I have never seen anything like this before.”

Roy’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, warm and reassuring. “It’ll be all right. I’ll go call Al. He’ll know what to do.”

“Al’s on tonight at the hospital. That’s why he couldn’t come to hear your speech.”

“Maybe I should call for an ambulance.”

Ed pressed a hand to his forehead; it felt like he had a headache coming on. “Just let me rest here for a few minutes.”

Roy stood, pulling on a robe before crossing to the sitting room. “I’ll be back. I’m calling him anyway.”

Ed waved him off, lying back against the wooden headboard, his damp hair dripping thin tracks of water down his back. I just need some sleep, he thought. It’s just been a crazy week. I’m just tired. I—

The pain in his head started like static on the radio, refining itself until it came in at a screaming decibel that Ed would have thought would shatter glass. His entire body tensed, and he pressed his fingertips against his temples, trying without success to relieve a little of the pain. Each frantic beat of his pulse pushed a brittle throb through his brain, and he began drawing in deep breaths, trying to slow it down.

He lay on his side, knees drawn up against his chest, eyes tightly shut. This is bad, he thought. This is bad and you probably have a brain tumor or some kind of aneurysm or maybe a blood clot. You might be dying right now and what are the odds that Roy is going to at least throw this come-stained blanket in the corner or something? The smell of their sex, which had been strangely pleasing only minutes ago, was now crowding out his senses, making him nauseated. He feebly tried to push the duvet away, but lifting his head only made the pain worse.

“Ed?”

Roy’s voice was like a railroad spike into his brain. “Ed? Al thinks you’re probably having a migraine.”

Ed pressed his hands over his ears, wincing. “Shut up, Roy,”  
he growled.

“He said I should turn the lights off and keep the room quiet. He’ll be over as soon as he can.” Roy’s hand came to rest on his back, and Ed recoiled, practically hissing.

“Shut the fuck up! Just leave me alone!” Ed turned away from him, pressing his face into his elbow to block out the light coming from the sitting room.

Roy didn’t say anything else, but he did remove the duvet, which did a little to alleviate Ed’s clenching stomach. The few lights that were on in the bathroom and elsewhere winked out one by one, and soon Ed was left in complete darkness. It didn’t soothe the pain, but it did keep it from getting worse, and if he concentrated on his breathing, it was enough to make him feel less like his head was coming apart.

The next time someone spoke his name, several hours had passed, or at least it seemed that way. He winced, tensing against the unwanted sound of his brother’s voice.

“Let me check you over, okay?”

Ed didn’t even nod; moving his head that much seemed impossible. He felt Al’s fingers against his wrist, and flinched as Al’s palm touched his forehead. 

“I hoped you’d never get these,” Al said softly, his voice pitched low enough that the sound wasn’t painful.

“What do you mean?” Ed opened one eye, grateful Al had kept the lights out.

“Dad had migraines. I found some of his records. I started with them in medical school. Usually people get them younger, so I figured you wouldn’t develop them.”

“You never told me.” 

It was pitch black in the suite, but Ed knew Al was smiling. “I never wanted you to worry.”

“But I never saw you like this. How did you keep it a secret?”

“You were starting with Roy. I probably could have grown a third eye and you wouldn’t have noticed.”

A wave of pain washed over Ed, and he sucked in a breath, swearing. “I’m sorry. This is awful.”

“It’s okay. You’ll make it through. The first one is the worst.” Al pressed a few pills into Ed’s hand. “If you can get these down, it’ll help a little with the pain.” He sighed. “I’m sorry I can’t do more.”

Ed forced the pills down, hoping his stomach wouldn’t rebel. “Thank you for coming.”

They sat in silence for a long while, and though Ed couldn’t see his brother, he could sense his presence, and it brought him some measure of calm. He was mildly horrified to think that Al had been suffering these from time to time for years without him knowing about it, and yet, he was selfishly glad that Al understood what he was feeling. If there was anything they knew how to do well, it was share a burden.

Ed exhaled softly. “Does Riza know?”

“Yeah.” Ed knew Al was smiling again, although he suspected sheepishly this time. “I had one on our seventh date. It was pretty mortifying. She was really sweet about it, though.”

“I’m glad.”

Al stood, moving slowly to keep the mattress from shifting too quickly. “I’d better get back to the hospital. We’ll talk tomorrow once you’re feeling better.” He touched Ed’s shoulder gently. “Want me to send Roy back in? He was pretty worried.”

Ed sighed. “Yeah.”

“Try to sleep if you can, brother.”

“Thanks, Al.”

When the door opened again, Ed recognized the footsteps as Roy’s. He heard Roy walk around the bed to his side, and then felt the weight distribution change as Roy lay down. Roy was silent, but his hand crept across the mattress to find Ed’s, twining their fingers together.

The pills had helped Ed’s pain a little, and he gave Roy’s hand a light squeeze. “You all right?”

“Are you?” Roy’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I’ll be fine. Sorry I was an ass.”

“Forget it. Just rest.”

They breathed together in the dark, silent and still.

“The speech…you were amazing.”

“Thanks.”

“How many more of those do you have to do?”

Roy took a moment to answer. “Hard to say, unless they give me a vote of no confidence.”

Ed stroked Roy’s fingers, strong and warm. “Do you think next year will be better than the last?”

“I hope so.” Roy laughed a little. “I wasn’t entirely sure either of us were going to make it through.”

Ed groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

Exhaling, Roy shifted slightly on the bed. “You think you’ll still love me when this is all over?”

Ed sniffed. “That’ll be the easy part. If I love you now, then it’s pretty obvious I’ll love you then.”

“So you think you can stand this a few more years?”

“I’ll stand it as long as I have to. You know that.”

He felt Roy move closer to him, and then stop. “Can I kiss you?”

“No.”

“I can’t kiss you?”

“I’m having a fucking migraine, Roy. Later, okay? Quiet time now.”

Roy sighed, sounding a bit forlorn. “All right.”


End file.
